China "prepares" for H5N1 sample sharing

The Chinese government is reported to be "preparing" to share samples of avian influenza that were contracted by humans, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune. Recently, the World Health Organization reported that it had not received any samples from the country in over a year.

China escaped criticism for refusing to share samples of avian influenza found in humans with the World Health Organization, at a time when Indonesia was refusing to collaborate with the international agency, in a dispute over the intellectual property rights of discoveries made from Indonesian-supplied data (Marketletters passim). Despite China's reluctance to work with the WHO, Indonesia's stance was described as "unprecedented."

The China Daily newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the Health Ministry was in the process of arranging the delivery of H5N1 samples to the WHO. The government-controlled newspaper claimed that the Ministry "will send two recent samples of the virus and one from a Beijing resident who was infected in 2003."